The first draft of my urban fantasy novel with strong diversity and LGBTQIA+ elements is complete. Clocking in at 121,000 words, I’m going to need to do some heavy pruning, or hope that some generous publisher (assuming I find one) is willing to accept a novel that long.

Of course, the fact that I’m finished doesn’t mean I’ve stopped writing. I have a long list of things I have long intended to go back and change, edit, improve, or add to. So that word count may get bigger before it gets smaller.

After I finish this round of substantive edits, I need to put the novel through several passes of trimming, pruning, and copyediting. Then, beta readers can tell me what they think.

I’m really excited because this is the first piece of writing I’ve ever taken to this stage. Of course, I’m still nowhere near finished. But there is an actual readable manuscript. Someone could read it and get an entire story from it. The final product might be substantially different from what it looks like now, but not entirely so.